Sports physiotherapy focuses on exercises, manual therapy an…
February 18, 2021 Posted in: ASK AN EXPERT
Sports physiotherapy focuses on exercises, manual therapy, and modalities to return you back
to your pre-injury level of activity. Treatment plans often utilize strength, flexibility, and
cardiovascular function to regain control over your injury. Sports Physiotherapists play an
important role in helping athletes of all ages and all levels of ability to enhance their
performance and return to play.
Injury rehabilitation – whether you are recovering from sprains/strains or surgery, sports
rehabilitation will optimize your return to your pre-injury function with a specific graduated
exercise program tailored to you and your sport. Exercises will focus on being sport-specific and
we will perform testing to know when it is safe for you to return to sport.
Injury prevention – Sprains and strains and repetitive use tendonitis are common sports
injuries. Not only will we focus on healing your injury, but we will look at your movement
patterns and muscle imbalances to correct any underlying reason for your injury in the first
place.
Acute intervention- With a comprehensive assessment, physiotherapists are experts in
identifying for example, if it’s a rotator cuff muscle involved in your shoulder pain, which
the ligament is at fault with your ankle sprain, if its disc or muscle is involved with your back pain, or if
it could be your ACL with your knee pain. We can identify what is at fault and recommend if
further imaging is required or not.
Performance Enhancement- Physiotherapists are experts in strength testing and movement
patterns. For example, your hip strength could be at fault for knee or ankle pain, or a weak
rotator cuff or scapular muscle could be at fault for shoulder pain while throwing.
Biomechanical analysis – Have a biomechanical analysis of your walking, running, jumping
throwing pattern to identify any faulty patterns or muscle weaknesses. Did you know
optimizing your ROM in specific directions or targeting specific muscles can help your
performance regardless of pain?
